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Song of Songs 1:5-6
Versus the 2011 NIV edition (2nd most popular Bible in US)
And the King James Version (most popular Bible in US)
Marcia Falk, 1973 - she got it
New Revised Standard Version (1989 latest ed?), Bible used at Prince Harry and Duchess Megan's marriage. Not quite but almost. Love the exclamation point at the end. Bible scholar Marvin Pope 110% had a hand in this one.
I really want people to know that the conjunction in Line 1 is "and," not "but" or "yet." It's "black and beautiful," not "black but beautiful." Receipt from the Hebrew Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament. The common use is "and." Translating "ve-" as an adversative is BS.
There are many more receipts to be had. The level of racism and colorism over the last 1600 years of translations of this passage is monumental. Marcia Falk, Marvin Pope, and many others knew.
Line 1 is a "hendiadys," a rhetorical term meaning two words used to express a single idea. "Black and beautiful." The singer isn't apologizing for her color in this passage. She celebrates it, then regrets it has been damaged by sun and hot wind. https://www.wilgafney.com/2013/11/16/black-and-beautiful-and-sunburned/
I think she's also bemoaning her skin got a little ashy, from working outdoors in dry hot wind. But she's also punning so hard that she's in a state of internal chaos, also she's potentially making fun of some lovesick dude? A lot going on here but no internalized colorism.
As seen in the HALOT (Biblical Hebrew lexicon).. perjorative associations with black and blackness in the lexicon don't distinguish between melanated skin tones and associations with dark or black patches caused by malnutrition or disease. So you can see how it goes.
So you want a Song of Songs edition that isn't antiblack and colorist, options are Dr. Marcia Falk, the NRSV sorta or for a womanist scholar translation find Dr. Renita J. Weems in the New Interpreter's Bible or in this astonishing book. Are there more? https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/411147.What_Matters_Most
Anybody working on this passage who has real questions feel free to DM, I have a full word study with poetic and sociopolitical context.
